The Game Changer
by LouisianaSunshine
Summary: A/U. Teen fic. While working with his uncle the summer before senior year Aaron Hotchner befriends the quiet and reserved Emily Prentiss and discovers she's far from the person he once thought. Will their fledgling relationship survive the rocky transition from summer to senior year or will their very different social status' get in the way? Rest of the team too! H/P with some JJ/S


**Hey there fans of CM. This is my first fiction on this new account and I've never written any Criminal Minds before. I've always had a soft spot for Hotch and Emily so this will be mainly centred around them but it'll also feature the rest of the gang and further down the line I'm thinking of adding some Spencer and JJ loveliness also. It is a teen fiction and will be centred on the summer beforehand and the team's senior year of high school. For the purpose of the fiction Hotch, Emily, Garcia, Morgan and JJ are all the same age. Spencer is two years younger and Strauss and Rossi are teachers. **

**This fic is very much A/U and I have employed some creativity to character backgrounds I'm a fuzzy on. **

**Please read and review - any comments will be taken fully onboard! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

**[Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Criminal Minds.] **

The sound of his alarm screeching in his ear came much to soon. He couldn't have had more than an hour's sleep at the most. His whole body ached as he slapped his hand on the plastic to stop the bleeping from waking anyone else. Movement was a struggle. Every other seventeen year old he knew was sleeping till the afternoon and enjoying their summer. Not him.

_"I won't have you laze around the house and sneaking off at night to get drunk with your football team friends. You'll learn to work this summer boy. By the time you're back at school you'll know what hard grafting feels like." _

Two weeks in and he was 100% sure that six more weeks of five a.m. rises would kill him. At this rate he wasn't expecting to see his senior year at all. With a resigned sigh he hauled himself out of bed before his father had to wake him and began his routine. Shower. Dressed. Breakfast. Out.

The warm spray was almost enough to lull him back into a gentle sleep and he grudged stepping out - the cool of the air conditioning, left on all night because of the heat, was almost painful on his bare skin. He'd laid his clothes out ready to be thrown on the night before. He was getting good at this full time working nonsense - and he had hated those first few mornings of panicked rifling through drawers and laundry baskets to find what he needed. He was already sick of the green polo shirt and beige pants look. At least his new boots were no longer cutting into him anymore and the painful blisters they had left were near enough gone now. Every cloud, he sighed as he made his way downstairs.

"Nice to see you're up on time, Aaron." His father greeted from behind a file as he sipped on his morning coffee. No answer was expected. He just nodded his head in acknowledgement of his father's words, eating his cereal in silence. For a while neither of them spoke. "Your mother made you lunch. It's in the fridge."

The blare of a car horn outside cut across Aaron's response. He hastily pulled on his boots and grabbed the paper bag his mother had packed the night before. He offered his father a smile as he made to leave. "Tell mom thanks."

A green van waited at the end of the drive for him emblazoned with the white letter spelling out "MIchael Hotchner & Sons Gardening and Landscaping". He opened the door and jumped into the passenger side - unlike his father, his uncle greeted Aaron with a smile. "Morning kiddo - you holding up alright?" Personally, Mick felt his brother was too hard on his eldest boy, put too much pressure on him when the rest of his friends were enjoying their summer vacations.

"I'm getting there, weekend is only two shifts away." He replied with a smile. During his junior year especially Aaron had often considered himself "living for the weekend" when after an afternoon's study he could go out with his friends. These past few weeks of work really showed what living for the weekend meant. It meant craving those two days off so he could sleep. And sleep and sleep and sleep.

"Almost there Aaron." His uncle chuckled.

"Where we headed to today?" Aaron asked as he buckled his seatbelt. "Any place interesting?"

"Actually I think this one might interest you." Mick nodded at the clipboard sitting on top of the dash. "We're starting a big one today son. You, me, Pete and his two boys Frank and Charlie are on this and it'll take a fair few contractors. Front and back yards, plus laying new gravel on a drive and replacing two fountains. It should take us right up to you getting back to school." As Aaron took a look at the outline of the proposed plans his uncle watched him quietly. "Don't recognise the name at all do you?"

"Mr H Prentiss and Ambassador E Prentiss." He read off.

_Prentiss_.

"Ambassador Prentiss has a daughter my age - she's called Emily. She's in my English and Psychology electives. Is that where we're going?"

From what he could vaguely remember Emily was dark headed, wore dark clothes and kept almost exclusively to herself. She hung around with some girl called Garcia and if it hadn't been that the vice captain of the football time had a soft spot - albeit a strange one - for the pair of them, then they would have more than likely found themselves forever victimised. He couldn't really remember what the girl even looked like - every time he had seen her she had always been hidden away behind a curtain of hair.

"Yeah that's the one. I met with the Ambassador and her husband to review the plans I'd drafted and they introduced her too me. Seems a lovely kid."

"I don't really know her except to say hello to." Aaron replied tossing the clipboard back onto the dash. "She doesn't really hang around with us." That was understatement.

"Well, that might change - could be that you see a whole lot of her over the next few weeks."

"Oh my sweet baby Jesus. He may be perfection itself. Are you sure the boy isn't half deity?"

"HEY!"

"Don't worry my sweet - you'll always be my chocolate Adonis. But Em you really have to come and appreciate this boy."

Derek Morgan groaned as Penelope peered out Emily's bedroom window at the group of landscapers that were currently ripping up the back lawn. "I thought you thought all football players were misogynistic wastes of oxygen Princess?" He teased as Emily joined the other their friend at the window. The raven haired girl rolled her eyes.

"Clearly not - we're friends with you right?"

"Touché." He flashed them a grin as he raised his hands in protest. Most of his team mates and the girls that flocked around after them considered his friendship with Em and Pen to be more than a little strange. He was a star football player and they were social outcasts that were two of the and they were more than slightly intelligent. Yet he had been friends with the blonde, often pigtailed, Penelope Garcia since he was four years old and he wasn't about to let a group of snotty girls and footballers with overinflated egos get in the way of that. As for Emily, she'd joined Corpus Christi Catholic College for junior year and a friend of Penelope was a friend of his.

Emily peered over Penelope's shoulder trying to get a glimpse of Aaron Hotchner without getting caught - her friend had not been wrong. No one in their right mind would have denied that the boy nicknamed "Hotch" was anything short of handsome but right now he was practically melting her. The uniform green polo that all the workers wore was sticking to him with sweat and it looked far from unattractive. It highlighted his toned chest and the his muscled arms. His dark hair, normally gelled to the side, was falling in front of his eyes and every so often he paused to sweep it away. The boy was perfection - not that Emily would ever admit it.

"Look at him - he's all disgusting and sweaty. How is that god-like at all Garcia?" She smirked at Morgan as Garcia gasped in protest.

"Emily Prentiss you take that back right now or -!"

Before she could dish out her threat however they were interrupted by a knock on the door and the entry of one her mother's suited security guards.

"Miss Prentiss - you're mother has asked that you begin getting ready for the lunch this afternoon. She kindly requests that you're guests return another time." With a brief nod the agent stepped out again.

"I guess that's the Ambassador's polite way of telling us to get the hell out, right?" Morgan asked with a joking tone.

Emily sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry guys - I can't dodge this one."

"No worries buttercup." Garcia reassured, hugging her frowning friend. "We shall arrange a sleep over of sorts soon and we shall have girl talk and watch movies and eat junk food."

"Sounds like a plan." Emily grinned hugging back. "Wanna join us for that Morgan?"

The boy grinned in response, running a hand over his short dark hair. "Might have to pass on that - it' d be a bit difficult to braid my hair and I wouldn't wanna feel left out."

The girls laughed as the trio headed downstairs and towards the front door.

"Try and enjoy yourself Princess." Morgan pressed a swift peck to her cheek on his way out. "One more year and you're outta here."

And then they were gone and she had a lunch party to get used to. Joy.

By three in the afternoon Hotch was dying - actually dying. His back and arms ached from ripping up the lawn and lugging it out into the dumpster out front. He'd been hauling and lifting and digging since 8a.m. and he was pretty sure his entire body was going to give out in protest. Football practice drills had never been this brutal and sweat was pouring from him.

His uncle had called a break and he and the other guys were sitting out back and drinking coffee from there thermos in the sun. Aaron has crept into the shade and well air conditioned kitchen of the Ambassador's stately home. Their current employer had made sure that refreshments were provided for the workers and Aaron helped himself gratefully to a pack of potato chips and some ice cold lemonade. He seriously could not wait until six o'clock rolled around.

All of a sudden the room was echoing with the sound of footsteps pounding down the stairs. The door was launched open and abruptly closed. Startled, Aaron looked up from his corner to see who had caused such a kerfuffle and his pulse leapt. So this was Emily Prentiss Pressed against the door was a gorgeous, dark headed girl in a very flattering purple dress. Wavy hair framed her pretty face and, eyes closed, she had a look of pure relief on her face.

Then she opened her eyes - and panicked.

"Oh my god I am so sorry!" She stood up straight and started nervously fiddling with her dress, then her hair and then the bracelets on her wrist. "I didn't mean to interrupt you on your break - I'll just go. I'm so sorry."

"No please - it's alright. Don't leave on my account. It's your house after all." He offered her a small smile as he put his glass down. "It's Emily isn't it?"

She met his gaze almost hesitantly. "Yeah, it is. You're Aaron Hotchner right? I'm surprised you know my name."

"We share classes." He stated as though it were that obvious - but she knew what he was getting at. "Plus there can't be too many Ambassador Prentiss' in the area can there?" He watched her cringe as she remembered the way in which she had been introduced in homeroom her first day. _This is Emily Prentiss. Her mother is an Ambassador for our country and she will be with us until the end of senior year - I hope you all make an effort to make her feel comfortable here._

"I wish." She mumbled, glancing away from him again. He hated the feeling that he was making her so uncomfortable but before he could say anything she spotted his empty glass. "Forgive my manners, I'll get you another drink, um -" She was at a loss for what to call him. He could tell she was toying with Hotch so he cut in.

"Please, call me Aaron and it's alright - you're mother told us to help ourselves." But Emily was already opening the industrial sized fridge and was turning towards him with the pitcher of lemonade before he could stop her.

She allowed herself a glance up at him while she poured his drink only glancing away again to return the pitcher to the fridge. He really was gorgeous.

"Aaron, really? I thought everyone just called you Hotch - or is that just your friends?" He noted the vague sound of teasing in her tone and responded with a smile.

"Really it was just that the guys on the football team considered Hotchner too long a name to call out during games. It was Morgan's idea and it just caught on and now everyone calls me that." He caught her smile at the mention of Derek. "I prefer Aaron but it's best to leave it now." He paused as the sound of more footsteps coming down the stairs heralded the entrance of a suited security official.

"Miss Prentiss your mother needs you upstairs again. She asks that you stop running off."

Emily smiled weakly at the boy before her and shrugged. "Duty calls, I guess." She made to leave but turned at the door to offer him a smile. "I suppose I'll see you around _Aaron_."

"Yeah," he shot her a small, genuine smile, "I'll see you around Emily."

**Cue curtains. So there is the first chapter - what did you think? **

**Please let me know if I should continue. Reviews/favourites/follows are all the encouragement I need. **


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